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Friday, October 29, 2010

Two Forgotten Friday Favorites: Bobby "Boris" Pickett

It's definitely that time of year when the oldies stations start playing the 1962 novelty hit song Monster Mash. I've often seen it attributed to the horror movie actor Boris Karloff. Karloff did perform the song in 1965 on the show Shindig!, but its original singer was Bobby Pickett. Pickett once did an imitation of Karloff while performing The Diamonds' Little Darlin' with a band in front of an audience. The positive reaction inspired him and a fellow band member, Lenny Capizzi, to write and record Monster Mash, with Pickett doing imitations of Karloff and Bela Lugosi throughout the song.

Monster Mash still enjoys some rotation around Halloween almost 50 years after it was first released. The song was a number-one hit on the U.S. Billboard charts in 1962, but didn't enjoy the same status across the pond - the BBC had banned it for being "too morbid." It was re-released in 1970 and 1973 and finally reached #3 on the UK charts in 1973.

Pickett released some other holiday novelties such as Werewolf Watusi, The Monster Swim, and a Star Trek-inspired tune called Star Drek. There was also a 1980s sequel to Monster Mash called The Monster Rap in the 80s. However, I kind of like the King Kong song set to clips from the movie:

Pickett passed away of leukemenia in 2007, but the Monster Mash lives on.

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